Twitter took down accounts posting about Russian military

Twitter said it had mistakenly suspended accounts posting about Russian military movements. It said the action was not due to a combined bot campaign or mass reporting by other users.

A Twitter spokesperson said in a statement that they had been proactively monitoring narratives that are violative of their policies. In this instance, they took enforcement action on several accounts in error. The company said they expeditiously reviewed these actions and have already reinstated access to several affected accounts.

Twitter has taken down a tweet that a spokesperson said was based on its rules against “manipulated or fake” media. The social media company had initially said it had taken down the tweet because it was not using real people. Later reversed course and said it had instead removed the tweet because it was against its rules. The spokesperson said the wrong action had been based on its regulations against synthetic and manipulated media.

Overview of the tension and reports from Twitter

Ukraine has declared a state of emergency and told its citizens in Russia to flee. In contrast, Moscow has begun evacuating its embassy in Kyiv in the latest ominous signs of escalating tensions between the two countries.

The emergency was in the country’s south and east, where tensions ran high since Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych’s ousting in February. It follows a day of deadly clashes between protesters and police in the capital and other cities. The emergency in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where pro-Russian sentiment is strong, comes after the security services in the province announced the start of a “special operation” to restore public order.

Twitter’s head, Yoel Roth, tweeted that the company was closely examining what had happened. He said mass reporting was not a factor. He also said that they do not trigger automated enforcement based on report volume, precisely because of how smoothly gamed that would be.